Peru's President Alberto Fujimori has won final legal approval to run for an unprecedented third term. The national election board rejected last-ditch appeals by 16 opposition figures and political parties, who argued that the constitution banned Mr Fujimori from running again in April.
After months of hinting that he would run, Mr Fujimori announced last week that he was a candidate for a third consecutive term, saying that he wanted to consolidate the free-market reforms of the past decade in this Andean nation of 25 million inhabitants. Mr Fujimori said that he also wanted to press on with tough anti-guerrilla policies.
Mr Fujimori was first elected in 1990 and re-elected in 1995. The Peruvian Congress which is dominated by the president's ruling party, passed a law stating that a constitutional ban on a second consecutive re-election should not count Fujimori's first term because that first vote predated the 1993 constitution.
